Crucial to any analysis of China’s political trajectory is an understanding of the kind of leadership that is governing the country. This is even more important now, given the emergence of new political elites with distinct educational and professional credentials who will be running the country for the next decade and beyond. Throughout PRC history, changes in the composition of the political elite have often reflected—and sometimes heralded—broad social, economic, political, and ideological changes in the country at large. This essay examines the rapid rise of lawyers and legal professionals in both Chinese higher courts and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and it links the trend of professionalization of the court judges and the emergence of legal professionals in the CCP leadership with paradoxical developments regarding the rule of law.

Guests: Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND. Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index. Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution Defining Ideas, & Chicago Law.

Guests: Peter Coy, Bloomberg Businessweek; David Drucker, WashingtonExaminer.com, Richard Epstein, Hoover.

The United Nations Charter has been violated more than times than it has been followed.